The group released a report in June finding that Monsanto's drought-tolerant corn will only offer modest protection for drought tolerance. While it may help individual farmers recoup yield losses in drought conditions, it would not increase food production to sustain a climate-stressed world, the report says (ClimateWire, June 5).

DroughtGard would only increase productivity by less than 1 percent per year, said the report's author, Doug Gurian-Sherman, a senior scientist in the group's Food and Environment Program.

In the face of criticism, big agricultural companies have repeatedly said that advanced genetic manipulation -- through biotechnology or advanced breeding technology -- is no bull's-eye solution but is simply a tool to better manage arid conditions.

"We've always told farmers they need to have realistic expectations," Schussler said.

In a climate-stressed world, farmers will need to adapt with new management practices, and Edge hopes using drought-resistant hybrids will re-emphasize the importance of water conservation.

"We can make progress," he said. "But it's one step at a time."

Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500

12 Comments

1. 1. vapur 12:08 PM 7/27/12

   OK. First of all: You are what you eat. The DNA fragments of what you eat gets distributed and stored in various places in your body, to affect metabolism and offspring.
   
   Secondly, the fact that the DNA change to this corn results in smaller pores to reduce water loss is a big red flag. Imagine what medical conditions this could cause in your children if similar attributes were being expressed by their genes.
   
   DuPont's angle through breeding/hybridizing efforts is much better than the genetic engineering from Monsanto. Wasn't Kosher/Halal intended for our biological evolution, protecting our children from certain defects?

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2. 2. sethdiyal 01:07 PM 7/27/12

   Nukes can desalinate seawater for free as a byproduct of their cooling system. Already the cheapest, cleanest greenist form of power there is. we just need to get on with it.

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3. 3. tucanofulano 04:14 PM 7/27/12

   GM foods = Obesity

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4. 4. mccluretiger 04:21 PM 7/27/12

   Vapur: you're logic is utter nonsense. The DNA you consume anytime you eat plants, meat, fungus,.... is not stored in your body to affect metabolism and definatly not in your testies or overies. The DNA (and RNA) is broken down in your gut and digested. If this was true than you should grow horns if you eat cattle, goat, or deer meat.
   Also Kosher/Halal is not intended for our biological evolution. It is a process of how you kill the animal and store the meat.
   This technology is what has and will allow us to feed the millions of people on this Earth, many of them that are starving. I'll end this with a quote "A man with bread has many concerns, a man without bread only has one concern"

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5. 5. Sacrieur 04:48 PM 7/27/12

   For a scientific target audience how does SciAm attract such an ignorant group?
   
   What Vapur said is absolute nonsense. It doesn't even begin to make sense in the slightest.
   
   And no, GMO does not mean obesity, a number of factors including easy availability to food, high caloric content with a high GI, and little exercise are drivers in obesity. In fact, GM foods can increase the nutrient content of fruits and vegetables and improve their taste.
   
   Some people...

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6. 6. marclevesque in reply to mccluretiger 04:49 PM 7/27/12

   I agreed on your main points, thought microRNA ...
   
   "Functional studies in vitro and in vivo demonstrated that MIR168a could bind to the human/mouse low-density lipoprotein receptor adapter protein 1 (LDLRAP1) mRNA, inhibit LDLRAP1 expression in liver, and consequently decrease LDL removal from mouse plasma. These findings demonstrate that exogenous plant miRNAs in food can regulate the expression of target genes in mammals."
   
   http://www.nature.com/cr/journal/v22/n1/full/cr2011158a.html
   
   http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=vitamins-minerals-and-microrna
   
   

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7. 7. mccluretiger in reply to marclevesque 04:56 PM 7/27/12

   Marclevesque: The miRNA study you mention I believe was retracted due to errors.
   

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8. 8. jtdwyer 06:42 AM 7/28/12

   I suspect that farmers have been increasing their acreage planted with corn, since the demand for corn products (including anticipated demand for increasing ethanol production) has been increasing. Increased planting, corn's high water requirements and the serious drought conditions (I think nowhere near 500 year levels) would all contribute to compound agricultural failure.
   
   I have to wonder how well this variety of corn would do in wet years (perhaps next year)? Can we really successfully anticipate annual regional rainfall and plant only an optimized variety of corn?

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9. 9. mccluretiger 09:39 AM 7/28/12

   jtdwyer: You are correct that farmers have increased their corn acreage. Its business wise--product B is in demand and has a good profit margin, therefore make more B. Monsanto, Pioneer, Dupont, and others are working on corn that uses less water. Monsanto's drought resistant corn works as it looses less water from its leaves during dry conditions. I believe that during normal or wet years the corn would perform the same as non-drought resistant corn.

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10. 10. marclevesque in reply to mccluretiger 09:57 AM 7/28/12

    From what I see there does appear to be a correction:
    
    http://www.nature.com/cr/journal/v22/n1/full/cr2011174a.html
    
    "This correction of Figure 5 and its legend does not affect the description of the results in the paper or the conclusions of our paper. We would like to thank the reader who brought the error of Figure 5B to our attention."
    

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11. 11. jtdwyer in reply to mccluretiger 12:01 PM 7/28/12

    You may well be correct that the drought resistant corn would perform well during wet years. However, if we did happen to get into the business of selecting specific crop characteristics for planting based on expected climatic conditions, it seems we'd be nearly guessing.
    
    BTW - I happened to be in Kansas a couple of weeks ago; the local TV weather announcer pointed out that the few (at that time around ten) days with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees were not approaching the record which, if I recall correctly, was about 56 days in 1936. As I mentioned before, I don't think we're approaching 'normal' 500 year drought conditions, yet... Things could be much worse, even without global warming.

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12. 12. Rudy Haugeneder, Canada 02:05 PM 7/28/12

    Genetic engineering provides short term gains but this tinkering with nature always -- always -- comes with a devastating but unknown environmental price in the medium and long term. It's the price of pretending to be god whether it deals with physics or changing life forms.
    There is a reason for the Atlantis myth: A warning of what not to do.
    

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